KARL WALLACE
NEW YEAR’S
New Year's commemorate historical events and ushers in the new season. Civilizations around the world have been celebrating the start of each New Year for at least four millennia.
Modern times has brought on many traditions include attending parties, making resolutions for the New Year, and watching fireworks displays. New York City is the most influential, iconic American metropolis New Year's celebrator. New Year’s festivities begin on December 31, the last day of the Gregorian calendar, and continue into the early hours of January 1 New Year’s Day.
With Christianity coming on the seene more days were added carrying religious significance, such as December 25 the anniversary of Jesus’ birth and March 25th Feast of the Annunciation.
Chinese New Year has undergone many changes, the celebration of the Chinese New Year is the most important and most anticipated holiday in China.
The earliest recorded festivities in honor of a new year’s arrival date back some 4,000 years to ancient Babylon. For the Babylonians, the first new moon following the vernal equinox—the day in late March with an equal amount of sunlight and darkness—heralded the start of a new year. They marked the occasion with a massive religious festival called Akitu (derived from the Sumerian word for barley, which was cut in the spring) that involved a different ritual on each of its 11 days. In addition to the New Year, Atiku celebrated the mythical victory of the Babylonian sky god Marduk, over the evil sea goddess Tiamat, and served an important political purpose: It was during this time that a new king was crowned or that the current ruler’s divine mandate was symbolically renewed.
Throughout antiquity, civilizations around the world developed increasingly sophisticated calendars, typically pinning the first day of the year to an agricultural or astronomical event. In Egypt, for instance, the year began with the annual flooding of the Nile, which coincided with the rising of the star Sirius. The first day of the Chinese New Year, meanwhile, occurred with the second new moon after the solstice.
January 1 became New Year's Day; the early Roman calendar consisted of 10 months and 304 days, with each New Year beginning at the vernal equinox; according to tradition, it was created by Romulus, the founder of Rome, in the eighth century B.C. A later king, Numa Pompilius, is credited with adding the months of Januarius and Februarius. Over the centuries, the calendar fell out of sync with the sun, and in 46 B.C. the emperor Julius Caesar decided to solve the problem. Did you know that in order to realign the Roman calendar with the sun, Julius Caesar had to add ninety extra days to the year 46 B.C. when he introduced the Julian calendar? The Julian calendar closely resembles the more modern Gregorian calendar that most countries around the world use today. As part of his reform, Caesar instituted January 1 as the first day of the year, partly to honor the month’s namesake: Janus, the Roman god of beginnings, whose two faces allowed him to look back into the past and forward into the future. Romans celebrated by offering sacrifices to Janus, exchanging gifts with one another, decorating their homes with laurel branches and attending raucous parties.
In medieval Europe, Christian leaders temporarily replaced January 1 as the first of the year with days carrying more religious significance, such as December 25 the anniversary of Jesus’ birth and March 25th Feast of the Annunciation. Pope Gregory XIII set January 1 as New Year’s Day in 1582.
TO BE CONTINUED…
NEW YEAR’S
New Year's commemorate historical events and ushers in the new season. Civilizations around the world have been celebrating the start of each New Year for at least four millennia.
Modern times has brought on many traditions include attending parties, making resolutions for the New Year, and watching fireworks displays. New York City is the most influential, iconic American metropolis New Year's celebrator. New Year’s festivities begin on December 31, the last day of the Gregorian calendar, and continue into the early hours of January 1 New Year’s Day.
With Christianity coming on the seene more days were added carrying religious significance, such as December 25 the anniversary of Jesus’ birth and March 25th Feast of the Annunciation.
Chinese New Year has undergone many changes, the celebration of the Chinese New Year is the most important and most anticipated holiday in China.
The earliest recorded festivities in honor of a new year’s arrival date back some 4,000 years to ancient Babylon. For the Babylonians, the first new moon following the vernal equinox—the day in late March with an equal amount of sunlight and darkness—heralded the start of a new year. They marked the occasion with a massive religious festival called Akitu (derived from the Sumerian word for barley, which was cut in the spring) that involved a different ritual on each of its 11 days. In addition to the New Year, Atiku celebrated the mythical victory of the Babylonian sky god Marduk, over the evil sea goddess Tiamat, and served an important political purpose: It was during this time that a new king was crowned or that the current ruler’s divine mandate was symbolically renewed.
Throughout antiquity, civilizations around the world developed increasingly sophisticated calendars, typically pinning the first day of the year to an agricultural or astronomical event. In Egypt, for instance, the year began with the annual flooding of the Nile, which coincided with the rising of the star Sirius. The first day of the Chinese New Year, meanwhile, occurred with the second new moon after the solstice.
January 1 became New Year's Day; the early Roman calendar consisted of 10 months and 304 days, with each New Year beginning at the vernal equinox; according to tradition, it was created by Romulus, the founder of Rome, in the eighth century B.C. A later king, Numa Pompilius, is credited with adding the months of Januarius and Februarius. Over the centuries, the calendar fell out of sync with the sun, and in 46 B.C. the emperor Julius Caesar decided to solve the problem. Did you know that in order to realign the Roman calendar with the sun, Julius Caesar had to add ninety extra days to the year 46 B.C. when he introduced the Julian calendar? The Julian calendar closely resembles the more modern Gregorian calendar that most countries around the world use today. As part of his reform, Caesar instituted January 1 as the first day of the year, partly to honor the month’s namesake: Janus, the Roman god of beginnings, whose two faces allowed him to look back into the past and forward into the future. Romans celebrated by offering sacrifices to Janus, exchanging gifts with one another, decorating their homes with laurel branches and attending raucous parties.
In medieval Europe, Christian leaders temporarily replaced January 1 as the first of the year with days carrying more religious significance, such as December 25 the anniversary of Jesus’ birth and March 25th Feast of the Annunciation. Pope Gregory XIII set January 1 as New Year’s Day in 1582.
TO BE CONTINUED…
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